Helping Create a Competitive Manufacturing Market
Supporting American Manufacturing Jobs
A vibrant and diverse economy underpins the strength and competitiveness of the USA. Manufacturing contributed over $2.17 trillion or 12.5% to USA GDP (2015), employs over 12 million workers in the country, and supports an estimated 18.5 million jobs or approximately one in six private-sector jobs. Increasing the economic benefit of manufacturing to the U.S. requires taking advantage of existing regional resources and then putting in place the additional measures needed to provide the economic environment required to grow the manufacturing sector. NAIMI is initially focusing on the very real opportunities for growth along the U.S.-Mexico Border. Mexico is our third-largest trading partner and the four U.S. and six Mexican States along the U.S.-Mexico Border constitute the fifth largest GDP in the world. NAIMI is developing an Economic-Technology Roadmap that will define the actions that need to be implemented to make manufacturing globally competitive in the regions along the U.S.-Mexico Border. NAIMI has created a broad and diverse network of partners that are critical in addressing the full range of issues that arise in growing manufacturing. NAIMI is now offering services to the manufacturing sector that result in improving the bottom line for our members and partners.
The loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and the Border States has been severe. The losses in California and Arizona have created economic hardships for communities close to the U.S.-Mexico Border. Over a 10-year period, California has lost 257,000 manufacturing jobs (a 26% loss of jobs) while Arizona lost over 46,000 manufacturing jobs (a 23% loss). There are multiple causes that drove these losses, including the low cost of labor overseas, regulatory issues, and workforce availability. Information on manufacturing jobs in the U.S. can be obtained by contacting NAIMI.
Reversing the decline in manufacturing jobs in the U.S. is a real challenge. NAIMI uses the world leadership of the U.S. in innovation, entrepreneurship, and R&D, couples that with advanced ICT (Information and Communication Technology) capabilities, and integrates that with the economic, workforce, and technology aspects that impact manufacturing. It is by drawing on, coordinating, and integrating the strengths of the U.S. that NAIMI can achieve its goal.
Intelligent Manufacturing
Advanced Intelligent Manufacturing integrates the use of advanced Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to improve products and processes and increase productivity. While there are currently efforts to drive advanced manufacturing and specific identified technologies such as 3-D printing and flexible electronics, there is no comprehensive assessment of the technologies currently used by companies with specific company, local and regional strategies developed to help them.
NAIMI is a mega‐economic development organization that drives cooperation and coordination of industry with local and regional economic, workforce, and R&D development organizations, investors, government, and colleges and universities to work together for mutual benefit. NAIMI is unique in that it takes a fully holistic approach to growing manufacturing through innovative approaches in research, testing, and development, process control, innovation, entrepreneurship, SME creation and growth, system-wide partnering, advanced materials and technologies, and economic and workforce development.
NAIMI provides an effective means of making U.S. manufacturing globally competitive in a holistic approach by incorporating advanced ICT into all major manufacturing elements. The Value Proposition of NAIMI comes from providing horizontal integration and coordination across all the organizations and programs connected to manufacturing:
The integration of these elements provides NAIMI with an effective and sustainable approach to move U.S. advanced manufacturing to a leadership position in the global economy.
The Evolution of NAIMI
NAIMI evolved from the Binational Intelligent Manufacturing Initiative (BIMI) under the auspices of the Mexico-‐United States Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council (MUSEIC), which is an initiative created by Presidents Obama and Peña Nieto in May 2013 under the High Level Economic Dialogue to promote competitiveness and connectivity, boost economic growth and innovation, and partner in advanced manufacturing. MUSEIC is formed of several subcommittees, including the Technology Commercialization Subcommittee which has had BIMI as its primary focus. BIMI was supported for several years by the U.S.-Mexico Foundation for Science (FUMEC). BIMI has now evolved into NAIMI (North American Intelligent Manufacturing Initiative), whose focus is on growing manufacturing jobs in the U.S., starting along the Border in CA, AZ, NM, and TX. NAIMI’s charter encourages working with foreign partners, in particular Canada and Mexico, in achieving our goals.
The first efforts of NAIMI are to develop a Clean Energy Economy in New Mexico that grows green manufacturing along with related efforts in supply, assemble, and distribution over a range of activities that support the growth of clean energy and a Clean Energy Economy.